Ingluvies
by RarissimaAvis
Summary: Prompt by 200th reviewer: Noh, Hadria's Lethifold eats someone important. Featuring Noh, Crookshanks and Padfoot as a trio of not-quite-vigilantes, while everyone else questions their association with Hadria once more.


**A short side-fic for outerspacekat who was my 200th reviewer (200th! I'm so honoured! Thanks to all of you who made this possible, seriously!) They gave me a prompt, and here we are! So do thank them for it!**

 **Hope you guys'll enjoy this one!**

 **(A few more things: First, I shall also apologise in advance, there'll be no mention of Gellert in this one, except by a character in passing. Second** **, this particular side-fic isn't canon to the Danse Macabre fic, so it isn't much of a spoiler or anything).**

 **Warnings: Fem! MOD! Neutral/Dark! Harry, Time Travelling, AU-ish...**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Anything not found in Harry Potter Wiki, Pottermore or in the books or movies are likely to be made up by me and do remember this is a fanfiction i.e. I'm borrowing the Potterverse and messing around in it so there may be intentional factual errors... In this case, I'm using what vague info I can get about Lethifolds and Dementors to come up with my own, probably quite inaccurate, theory, just for the sake of this fic.**

* * *

 _The Prompt by outerspacekat: Hadria's Lethifold eats someone or something important._

 _Setting chosen by author: Hadria's third year, 1993, Hogwarts_

* * *

 **Ingluvies**

* * *

Lethifolds and Dementors weren't related, contrary to popular belief. Some people thought they might have been, seeing as the two species were as dark _and_ amortal as any creature could get. Those people were wrong. But there _was_ a relationship between the species, a relationship that Hadria unknowingly forged with her Lethifold named Noh, when she established dominance over it.

That's right. Lethifolds were sometimes treated as pets by the Dementors. Not the ones at Azkaban of course, because it was actually more likely for the Lethifolds to eat the inmates than for the Dementors to 'accidentally' inhale their souls. And anyway, most Lethifolds were found in the tropics. 'Most' being the keyword here.

Hadria had a Lethifold as a pet, and it went by the name of Noh. Hardly anyone knew about it. Which really meant that the entire batch of Slytherins in her year knew. But of course, no one breathed a word about it, for fear they'd get eaten in their sleep by said Lethifold. It probably helped that the Lethifold was growing bigger, because it hadn't really been full-grown when Hadria first met it, and now it was being fed regularly with heavy meals by the Hogwarts House-elves.

Regardless, it didn't make Hadria immune to the effects of several full-fledged humanoid Dementors invading the Hogwarts Express.

The raven-haired girl was sharing a compartment with Draco, Blaise, Neville and a Remus Lupin when it happened. The only reason her compartment seemed like reversed harem was because Draco and Pansy wasn't on talking terms for some reason unknown to Hadria, while Hermione was sitting with a few other Ravenclaws in a Silent-Reading-Only compartment.

When Hadria felt the chill, she knew what was going to happen. Sirius had escaped Azkaban, it was her third year, she was even sitting in the same compartment as before! So she wrapped herself up in Noh, who was very full—and hence very thick and warm—and waited.

"What's happening?" Neville was the first to ask, probably because he wasn't engrossed in a game of chess like the other two were. Interestingly enough, Blaise was better at chess than the Malfoy scion.

" ** _Winter is coming_** ," said Hadria in her best Trelawney-impression as she sunk deep into the swathes of her Lethifold like a tortoise into its shell.

This was greeted by odd looks all around.

"In two to three months' time, yes. It's September," Draco pointed out.

Hadria shrugged and amended, "Winter is coming _early_."

Her friends wisely ignored her nonsense, but heeded the implied advice by taking out their scarves and winter coats out of their trunks. Except for Blaise who was already wearing an expensive dragon-hide ensemble. Not that it really helped much, when the cold just kept spreading—fern frost on the icy windowpanes, visible breaths of vapour like smoke from a dragon's mouth…

"This is ridiculous," Draco complained. "We should've kept that dragon from first year."

"It wouldn't be able to fit into the compartment," Blaise laughed.

Snag, the Jarvey, took the opportunity to peek its head out to gasp, "Numbskull!" Then buried itself close to Hadria for warmth once more, because it was too cold out even for more insults. Blaise sniggered while Neville choked as he tried to hold in his own laughter.

But that was when the rattling began, and the lights went out, plunging the compartment into swift and total darkness, and it seemed like they were stuck in some terribly cliché horror story.

The three boys automatically lit their wands.

"Hadria?" Neville whimpered—because when things get dark and scary, from psychopathic professors to berserk basilisks, Hadria was your best bet—and glanced over at the girl who could no longer be seen.

There was an odd-shaped bundle of pitch-black in her seat, and even that bundle wasn't very visible in the dim compartment. A muffled "Yes?" came from somewhere within the bundle that appeared so dark that even when the light from Draco's wand shone upon it, the only colour revealed was black. Not grey, not brown, not dark blue or dark purple, but black, the colour of nothingness.

It would have been funny to see in any other situation, but not in this one.

"What if we don't survive this winter?"

"Then my guardian, the Malfoys, the Black Widow, and your grandmother will storm the school together to demand an Explanation and there will be hell to pay," the shadowy shape replied. Again, no one laughed, not even Blaise.

It might have been because the door screeched open the very next moment, and everyone with visible eyes stared in numb terror at the hooded figure that leaned in.

"A bloody Dementor?" Draco whispered. "They can't be serious!"

"They're not Sirius, because they're _looking_ for Sirius."

"Not the time, Hadria," said Blaise, but just as he was about to glance in her direction, a burst of bright light filled the room, brighter than the light of any _Lumos_.

Everyone was momentarily blinded, and when their visions cleared, they could make out a shining white creature with nine heads driving the Dementor out of the compartment. Hadria had shed her living cloak and was standing in the middle of the compartment with her wand out, untamed raven-wing-black hair a halo of darkness around her, making her look very much like an peeved goddess.

"That was a remarkable Patronus."

And the sleeping Professor was now very much awake.

* * *

When Professor Lupin had distributed his chocolates and left the compartment with his own Patronus—a loping canine-like thing—Hadria immediately dropped to her knees. Not in exhaustion, or for any reason that would have been normal or human, but...

"Where did you learn— _What are you doing?_ " Draco exclaimed. The girl had her head stuck under the seats, but she crawled out backwards and looked up with an alarmed expression. Her friends had never seen her look really alarmed before, so they were understandably worried now.

Then she said, "I can't find Noh." And Draco and Blaise gaped.

"What's 'Noh'?" Neville asked as he stared at Draco's rapidly paling face in concern.

"It's—" Blaise looked at Hadria uncertainly, who sighed and twisted a lock of black hair around a finger.

"It's my pet Lethifold."

* * *

They found Noh later on, after all the Dementors had left the train. The Lethifold had managed to sneak back into their compartment without getting spotted, which was a relief. It seemed like no one had gotten attacked by it, and it hadn't gotten attacked by anyone. That had also been the reason why Hadria didn't attempt a Summoning Charm at first, lest Professor Lupin come across a Lethifold soaring through the air towards their compartment.

So all was well and peaceful.

Or as well and peaceful as it could get, when the rumour mill began and by the end of the Start-of-Year feast, Hadria had supposedly single-handedly fought off an entire army of Dementors with nine basilisk-Patronuses that could petrify any Dementor with just one blazing look.

"But Dementors can't even see!" Hermione protested as softly as she could, nose buried in a book about amortal beings and creatures.

"And Patronuses are not actual creatures with corresponding abilities. Your point, Granger?"

"Is no one else going to talk about how Hadria has a pet Lethifold?"

"Relax, Longbottom, it has been two years and it hasn't eaten anyone... yet... As far as we know, that is." Which naturally wasn't as reassuring as Blaise had hoped to be.

Hadria huffed, propped her elbows on the library table and rested her head in her hands. "I'm just here, you know. And I can teach you how to conjure a Patronus, if you'd like?"

Draco's silver eyes lit up. "Do you think I could get a dragon? With wings and spikes and all?"

"I'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way," Hermione commented, almost condescendingly. "You can't choose your own Patronus."

"But Hadria's got a massive hydra," Blaise pointed out.

Hermione glanced at all of them with an expression suggesting that she thought them all idiots. Then, slowly, as if speaking to kindergarten kids, the bushy-haired girl said, "She's _Hadria._ And… You're not."

Then Luna drifted by their table, complete with beetle-wing-earrings and a butterbeer-cork-necklace. "Well, I'd like to have a Crumple-Horned Snorkack as a Patronus."

* * *

It was a whole week, before any real excitement began, in the form of the Weasley twins.

There was the Boggart class, of course, which was interesting enough...

Pansy's Boggart was Draco declaring his abhorrence of her in front of everyone (which got turned into Pansy kicking Draco in the—). Blaise's Boggart was a clown of all things (that one got turn into a _murdered_ clown, which was even creepier, but Blaise laughed, which was totally broke the creepy-meter and seemed to freak the Professor out). Meanwhile Draco's Boggart was an overgrown ferret that looked suspiciously like Snag with all his things broken and strewn around it (the Jarvey ended up being turned into a fur scarf). Unfortunately, Hadria didn't get a chance to meet her own Boggart, because Professor Lupin thought she couldn't handle it, which was a real pity.

But at the end of the first week, Fred and George came searching for Hadria, to help them prank Filch and Mrs Norris.

The caretaker spent the next month or so belting out Christmas songs whenever he opened his mouth to yell the ears off whoever displeased him. His cat, however, was missing from his side, indisposed by a particularly bad case of hiccups that couldn't be cured except by waiting for it to wear off naturally. (The hiccups were really caused by the hallucinations Mrs Norris had been spelled to see, hallucinations of big yellow eyes staring back at her in the reflection of dark water).

"Why Christmas songs?" Hermione finally asked. By then, Halloween was drawing near.

Hadria shrugged. "Actually, I don't even know why we're pranking Filch and Mrs Norris in particular."

"Because he's a grumpy old man with a grumpy old cat?" Blaise suggested.

"But if you didn't know why, why did you do it?" Hermione demanded.

"It's fun," Hadria replied with another shrug, and fished out some coins. "And they paid me for it."

Draco stared. "Don't you already have enough money?"

The answering grin he got was a tad bit unnerving (though it still wouldn't compare to the image of Blaise laughing over the corpse of a bloody clown). The raven-haired girl tossed a coin to him. "Catch!"

He caught it, and with a loud sound like might have been a fart, a rubber chicken appeared in his hands, and Draco looked utterly flabbergasted.

"Trick coins!" Hadria proclaimed happily. "Amazing, aren't they?"

* * *

Halloween was The Day Things Happen. Hadria wasn't exactly sure what would happen this time, but she did hope she could catch Sirius attempting to break into the Gryffindor tower before he made his escape again.

But they didn't get to meet then.

By the time Hadria managed to sneak away to the Gryffindor tower, the Fat Lady's portrait had be damaged. Instead, when Hadria returned from checking out the Fat Lady's portrait, she found a shaggy black dog and a large ginger cat outside the entrance to the Slytherin Dungeon.

"Crookshanks, you know what Pansy says about bringing other animals into our common room," she chided the cat. Though Pansy had really meant the random _dead_ animals the cat liked to leave by their fire whenever anyone accidentally let the cat in.

Hadria turned to the dog. "Whose doggie are you? You do look remarkably like Scáth, you know. Except that you've got lovely gray eyes."

When the grim-like dog didn't make a dash for it as she half-expected him to, she spoke to the wall, " _Ophidia in herba_."

A stone door appeared in the wall and slid open. She walked in, then turned back to see the two animals silently communicating with each other.

"Coming?" Hadria asked. The cat joined her and the dog followed.

Once inside the empty Slytherin common room (everyone else was still at the Feast), Crookshanks and Padfoot sat in the middle of the hearth rug and looked at her expectantly. Well, this was interesting.

So Hadria opened her arms wide and said, "Welcome to the Slytherin common room, Crookshanks and Crookshank's New Friend. And…" Here, she walked over to a passageway. "I shall now show you to the girls' dormitories, provided neither of you ever leave anything nasty there. I'm looking at you, Crookshanks. No littering."

The two animals followed after her obediently, but when the three of them entered the girls' dormitories, Crookshanks darted to the foot of her bed and hissed. The Lethifold, that had draped itself over the top of her bed like a canopy, dove downwards to—

"Noh!" The Lethifold froze in the act of opening its maw, which was really more like a mini black hole. But the cat, which had narrowly escaped from being eaten, yowled what seemed like a battle yowl and leapt… right into the Lethifold's large mouth.

Hermione was going to murder her. And then Gellert would murder Hermione. And then there would be another epic duel between Dumbledore and Grindelwald and possibly the start of the next Wizarding War… All just because her pet Lethifold ate the wrong cat.

Said Lethifold was now having what seemed like some severe indigestion.

"I do hope Crookshanks comes out alive," Hadria commented to Padfoot. "But at the same time, I do hope Noh won't suffer too much internal damage. I don't know a Wizarding vet that would take in a Lethifold. Do you?"

The black dog merely gave her a strange look, as if it was seriously questioning her sanity. Coming from a wizard just recently escaped from Azkaban, Hadria supposed that must say something.

* * *

They met in Professor Dumbledore's office—McGonagall, Snape, Dumbledore, Hermione and Hadria. With Hadria was Padfoot and Noh, with Hermione was a Crookshanks that looked like it'd been to hell and back... Which mightn't been too far from the truth, since Hadria wouldn't be surprised if Lethifolds actually had portals to hell in their stomachs.

"A pet _Lethifold_?!" Professor McGonagall was equal parts outraged and alarmed, and her eyes kept darting at the casual way Hadria had said Lethifold draped over her shoulders like a cloak as per usual. While it was usually hard to tell what Professor Snape felt behind his almost permanent scowl, Hadria could still tell there were cogs and gears turning as he reviewed all the interactions he's had with her, wondering if he'd ever unknowingly seen Noh before. Professor Dumbledore himself looked a little worried, but was otherwise still smiling with twinkling blue eyes.

"Noh usually listens to me," Hadria tried to explain. "And really, it's not our fault—"

"My cat was in its _stomach_!" Hermione all but screeched.

"It jumped in!"

"You're saying that Crookshanks _jumped_ into Noh's mouth?!"

"Yes!"

"Whatever for?!"

"Well—"

There was knocking on the door, and Dumbledore smiled even wider. "Come in!"

They turned to see a freckled red-head open the door, only to freeze at the sight of all of them.

"You asked to see me?" Ron said, eyeing the Slytherin and the Ravenclaw suspiciously.

Hadria coughed. "As I was saying earlier, Crookshanks jumped into Noh's mouth to retrieve a rat called Scabbers."

"So it's you!" Now Ron was the one yelling. "You slimy stinking snake!"

"Mister Weasley—"

"Ten points from Gryffindor for calling names!"

"Fred and George was sure it was Mrs Norris, but it was you! Where is he? Is he dead? Where's Scabbers?!"

"I don't get it, why would my cat want to retrieve Ron's old rat from the stomach of a Lethifold?"

"And _you_! Is that where Scabbers is now? Did your cat eat—"

"PETER PETTIGREW!"

And then, as Hadria expected, there was dead silence. Professor McGonagall was the first to recover. She said, her Scottish accent thick now, " _Pardon?_ "

Meanwhile, Professor Dumbledore was watching the whole thing in a rather unconcerned manner, while Professor Snape looked like he had accidentally swallowed one of the Headmaster's sherbet lemons.

Hadria grinned, now that she had their full attention once more. "You see, Scabbers, an old rat that has been living with the Weasleys for at least ten years now, is actually Peter Pettigrew, who is an Animagus."

"What are you saying, Miss Potter?" McGonagall sounded like Hadria had been speaking German, and hadn't understood a single word she'd said.

"Well that's easy to prove," said Snape, the practical one whose patience was wearing thin and had enough. He drew his wand. "Miss Potter, produce the rat."

The Slytherin girl turned to her Lethifold with an open palm outstretched. "Wormtail, please." And the Lethifold spat out a dishevelled but very much alive rat.

But before Ron could even yell or do anything else, there was a flash of blue light, and Hadria quickly threw the transforming rat to the ground. It was a most disgusting transformation that ended with a semi-conscious short man with grubby skin.

Professor McGonagall drew in a sharp breath and looked like she was holding back some cuss words. Ron, however went ahead with, "Bloody hell! What did you do to Scabbers?!"

Hermione looked horrified. "Th-That's… He's supposed to be dead, isn't he? But... If he's alive, then…"

"Sirius Black can't be accused of killing him," Hadria finished for her. "It's not like he had a trial anyway." Professor Snape sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Then Dumbledore stood up, and went around his desk. He casually stunned the man on the floor before he could regain his awareness, and smiled genially at all of them.

"Crookshanks is a highly intelligent cat," he began, which made Hermione perk up. "He must have found out, somehow, that Hadria's pet Lethifold had swallowed Scabbers, who turns out to be Peter Pettigrew, and had bravely faced the Lethifold to retrieve the rat. Which brings us to the question of why the cat was so determined in finding him, and whether Sirius Black is really guilty of all the crimes he's been accused of."

Hadria raised a hand. "That's because Sirius is after Pettigrew, sir, whom he claims was the one who betrayed them all and framed him for all those crimes. And clever Crookshanks helped him."

"Miss Potter, do you mean to say that you've been in contact with the mass murderer and never thought to report it until now?" Snape glowered, as he always did whenever Hadria did something he deemed as ridiculously-low-self-preserving.

Now Hadria was raising both hands in front of her sheepishly. "My apologies, sir, but I'd only talked with him right after Crookshanks brought out the rat. I had to stop him from grabbing the rat and making a dash for it, after all."

Now Hermione appeared rather faint as her brain worked away and… "Wait a minute, I remember you saying that you had a… _Dogfather_?" She glanced at the black dog sitting innocently at Hadria's feet.

Hadria laughed, though inwardly, she thought cackling like a villain might feel better. "Lo and behold, ladies and gentlemen." Then she hugged the dog, which was more of a tackle than a hug, to prevent him from fleeing should he even think about it. "I present to you, the Animagus, Sirius Black!"

She ended up clinging on to a dirty man who managed to stagger to his feet even though he had a thirteen-year-old girl clinging onto his back.

He grinned. "Hello, Minnie, Albus, Snivellus. Long time no see."

* * *

Later on, after a whole long explanation of basically everything, after Snape had swept out of the room, tired of it all, and Ron had fainted from shock, they agreed they had best tie up the man lying on the floor and ship him to the Ministry of Magic.

"Gift him to Amelia," Sirius said. "She'll love it."

But it was already close to twelve midnight, and hardly anyone was going to be at work. So Hadria took the initiative, told Noh to open its mouth, and proceeded to shove the entire man into the black hole.

"I'm pretty sure that's creature-abuse," Hermione protested weakly, to which Hadria had the cheek to say, "Who are you talking about? Pettigrew or Noh?"

But it was the general consensus that one of them deserved it and the other was a Dark creature that had jaws and body more extendable and elastic than any snake.

* * *

 **The End! Thanks for reading!**

 **Feel free to PM me or leave a review with your comments or questions.**


End file.
